1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a light-guide device designed to light a plurality of indicators in a vehicle control panel. In particular, the present invention relates to a light-guide device of an instrument panel in a motor vehicle or motorcycle.
2. Description of Related Art
As known, vehicles have an instrument panel provided with a plurality of indicators, which are defined by graduated scales, warning lights, numbers, etc. and are lighted and/or turned off for providing information about the operation of devices and/or the activation/deactivation of vehicle functions.
Each of such indicators receives light from a corresponding light source independently of the other indicators. The light sources are usually arranged in a position spaced apart from the indicators for optimizing the space available in the instrument panel. The various light beams are transmitted to the respective indicators in a direct manner, through reflections, or through light-guide elements, which are defined by separate pieces spaced apart from one another.
In this latter case, the light-guide elements may be relatively numerous, according to the application, and they are made substantially equal in shape and size for reducing costs. However, since they are separate pieces, they still require a long mounting time when assembling the instrument panel and a long time for the quality control of the instrument panel itself.
WO2006041876A1 describes a control panel for a vehicle compartment. Such an instrument panel has a plurality of light-guide fingers that are connected to a lens, at an upper edge of such a lens, close to respective indicators directly provided into the lens. The light-guide fingers transfer light from a light source into the lens edge in order to light the indicators.
Such indicators may be functionally separate in order to reduce the amount of light that the lens transmits from each one indicator to the adjacent ones. However, the modes indicated in WO2006041876A1 for reducing the light leaking through the lens are not satisfactory.